INTERIM LEGAL · IP · COMPETITION AND ANTITRUST LAW
Interim IP lawyers and competition law project lawyers for trademarks, patents, licences and antitrust
Alpinum Solutions provides interim IP lawyers and competition law project lawyers to companies in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. They manage trademark and patent portfolios, negotiate licence, research and distribution agreements and review business processes for antitrust risks – from junior to senior, via staff leasing or freelancing, part-time or full-time, individually or as a team. Your legal or compliance department directs the assignment.
Intellectual property and competition law meet where companies exploit their rights: in licences, partnerships, distribution systems and research projects. Many legal departments have a single specialist for this – if that person is absent or a portfolio project comes up, contracts and deadlines pile up. Alpinum selects professionals by focus (trademarks, patents and know-how, licensing, antitrust), industry, governing law and languages and provides them. Alpinum does not provide legal advice.
Typical assignment scenarios as examples, not individual client cases.
Typical assignments in IP and competition law
Sorting out a trademark and licence portfolio after an acquisition
Recording the acquired company's trademarks, domains and licence agreements, reconciling owners and terms, preparing assignments and reporting gaps to the legal department. Duration: a few weeks to a few months. Workload: 50 to 100%, with junior support for large portfolios.
Covering an IP counsel on parental leave or a vacancy
Keeping day-to-day IP work running: assessing trademark conflicts, coordinating cease-and-desist letters and oppositions with external counsel, negotiating confidentiality and licence agreements, advising business units on advertising and product names. Duration: until the return or a new hire, often several months. Workload: part-time or full-time.
Reviewing business processes with antitrust relevance
An international group temporarily strengthens its compliance team to review business processes with antitrust relevance, identify risks and further develop internal policies and controls – for example for distribution agreements, pricing discussions, trade association work and cooperation with competitors. Duration: several months. Workload: usually full-time, as a small team across several countries.
Research, development and technology transfer agreements
Drafting and negotiating collaboration, contract research and licence agreements with universities, start-ups or industrial partners, clarifying rights to results and inventions. Duration: project-based, from single agreements to a framework for a whole programme. Workload: often part-time.
Interim IP lawyer: what project lawyers take on in trademarks, licensing and antitrust
Trademarks and designs
Maintaining the portfolio, aligning searches and conflicts with external trademark counsel, drafting coexistence and delimitation agreements, clearing product names and advertising internally.
Patents, know-how and inventions
Handling confidentiality agreements, invention disclosures and the contractual side of patent matters. Technical drafting and filing of patents stay with your patent attorneys.
Licensing and technology transfer
In- and out-licensing, royalties and audit rights, rights to development results: the professional drafts, negotiates and manages the agreements and keeps the contract register up to date.
Competition and antitrust law
A competition law project lawyer reviews distribution, purchasing and cooperation agreements, trains business units, develops policies and controls and prepares documents for external law firms. Unfair competition rules for advertising and comparisons with competitors are part of the work too.
Scope
IT contracts, software and data protection are covered by the practice area IT, Technology & Data Privacy Law; patent and trademark litigation by Litigation, Investigations & eDiscovery. For a compliance programme without a legal antitrust focus, see interim compliance.
IP and competition lawyers from junior to senior
- Junior (0–2 years): recording trademark and licence portfolios, maintaining deadlines and registers, handling standard agreements such as NDAs from templates, screening distribution agreements against a checklist.
- Mid-level / experienced (3–6 years): negotiating licence, research and distribution agreements independently, assessing trademark conflicts, carrying out antitrust reviews of clauses and processes, running training sessions.
- Senior (7+ years): leading the IP function or an antitrust project, point of contact for management and business units, steering external patent, trademark and competition counsel.
Which tasks, priorities and approval limits apply is decided by your company; the professional reports to the person you designate. In staff leasing, the right to give professional instructions generally lies with you and the professional is integrated into your organisation. In freelancing, they deliver a defined package, such as cleaning up a licence portfolio, independently within the agreed mandate.
Engagement models for IP and competition lawyers in Switzerland, Germany and Austria
A workload of 20 to 100% is possible. Anyone working with confidential inventions, pricing data or sales information is usually integrated into your systems and processes via staff leasing; a clearly defined task such as reviewing a licence portfolio can also be awarded as freelancing.
Switzerland
Staff leasing (Personalverleih) or freelancing; the contracting party for staff leasing is Alpinum Solutions AG.
Germany
Temporary agency work (Arbeitnehmerüberlassung) or freelancing; for agency work your contract is with Alpinum Solutions GmbH. More on the German market: interim legal and compliance in Germany.
Austria
Freelancing or staff leasing via the German or the Swiss company.
Limits
Alpinum is neither a law firm nor a patent or trademark attorney firm. Filings, representation before offices, competition authorities and courts, and legal opinions remain with your company and your counsel. The professional only sees competitively sensitive information to the extent you define.
Process: from focus area to the right profile
01 · Define the focus
Trademarks, patents and know-how, licensing or antitrust? Which countries, industry and languages, what duration and workload, one person or a team?
02 · Compare profiles
You receive selected profiles within 48 hours. You hold the interviews and decide; the start of the assignment is agreed with Alpinum – we do not commit to a fixed start date.
03 · Prepare the start
Access to the trademark and contract registers, templates, policies and contacts at external counsel is in place on day one.
04 · Continue or hire
Once the assignment is running, you can change workload and duration. If you want to keep the professional, a move into your team (temp-to-perm) is possible.
What interim IP and competition lawyers cost
Daily rates as ranges, excl. VAT, as of 18 October 2026:
- Switzerland: junior (0–2 years) CHF 600–800, experienced (3–6 years) CHF 800–1'200, senior (7+ years) CHF 1'200–1'800+.
- Germany and Austria, staff leasing: junior EUR 480–720, experienced EUR 720–960, senior EUR 960–1'440+.
- Germany and Austria, freelancing: junior EUR 720–960, experienced EUR 960–1'360, senior EUR 1'360–2'000+.
When cleaning up a trademark or licence portfolio, a combination pays off: a junior records and reconciles, an experienced professional decides and negotiates. The comparison with permanent hiring and external fees is in the guide cost models in interim legal and compliance.
FAQ on interim IP and competition lawyers
Does an interim IP lawyer replace our patent or trademark attorneys?
No. The professional works inside your company, prepares decisions, negotiates agreements and steers your external counsel. Filings and representation before offices stay with them.
Can one person cover both IP and antitrust?
For licence and distribution agreements often yes, because both topics sit in the same contracts. For a larger antitrust project alongside day-to-day IP work, we would rather propose two profiles.
How do you handle confidential inventions and pricing data?
The professional is bound to confidentiality and works with the access you grant. Where needed, you define which information they must not see.
Is industry experience needed, for example in pharma or manufacturing?
For patents, research agreements and distribution systems it helps a lot. For a trademark portfolio or standard licences, solid IP experience plus onboarding is usually enough. We clarify this before sending profiles.
How soon can someone start?
Within 48 hours you receive selected profiles. When the professional starts depends on your interviews, their availability and your system access.
Related services: project lawyers for licence and contract review · backlog, review and internal investigations · project lawyers for IT law and data privacy. All practice areas at a glance: interim legal and compliance for companies and law firms.
Discuss your needs: support for IP and competition law
Tell us the focus, countries and timeframe. Within 48 hours you receive selected profiles.